2017 Washington Wizards

Written by Paul Banks of the Washington Times, David Kay and Peter Christian of the The Sports Bank. Send Paul an e-mail here: paulb05 AT hotmail DOT com.
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Washington Wizards (Last Year: 49-33)

2017-18 Projected Depth Chart:

C: Marcin Gortat/Ian Mahinmi/#Daniel Ochefu

PF: Markieff Morris/Jason Smith/Chris McCullough

SF: *Otto Porter/Kelly Oubre

SG: Bradley Beal/*Bojan Bogdanovic/Tomas Satoransky/#Sheldon McClellan

PG: John Wall/*Trey Burke

NBA Free Agents:

*SF-Otto Porter (RFA)

*SG-Bojan Bogdanovic (RFA)

*PG-Trey Burke (RFA)

#C-Daniel Ochefu (TO)

#SG-Sheldon McClellan (TO)

PG-Brandon Jennings (UFA)

2017-18 Team Salary: Approximately $89.8 million

NBA Offseason Team Needs:

1. Pay Porter: Otto Porter is going to get paid this summer. The Wizards have to be prepared to throw a contract his way, which will likely approach nearly $20 million per year. If they are unwilling to pay him that money, another team certainly will.

2. Extend Bogdanovic?: Bojan Bogdanovic, who was acquired prior to the trade deadline, is a restricted free agent just like Porter. Washington will face a similar decision regarding his future. With Porter the priority and expected to push them above the salary cap, the Wizards may have to let Bogdanovic walk.

3. Backup Point Guard: Trey Burke wasn’t getting the job done as John Wall’s backup, so the team signed Brandon Jennings late in the season. Jennings is a free agent, and the Wizards are likely to let Burke walk, meaning they will be in the market someone behind Wall.